Giving advice is often easier than receiving one and applying it! Let it go is a popular saying these days. But what does it mean? For some, it means letting the grieving process run its course. For others, it means letting go of an argument between friends or colleagues; or letting go of a harsh comment someone gave you. It also means letting go of being a perfectionist. I need to work on all of these and I hope that by writing this post, I’ll be able to take my own advice.

You should carefully reread the first paragraph because there are at least ten mistakes in it. If you consider yourself to be a great reader and writer, you should have found some by now. For those of you who are perfectionists, let me stop you right here, I did not intentionally insert ten mistakes. For the rest of you, imagine searching for these mistakes, never finding them but always wondering where they might be or if you found all of them. That is a silly example of how it feels not to let go.

To everything – turn, turn, turn. There is a season – turn, turn, turn. And a time to every purpose under heaven. Cheryl and I found a new purpose this year, sharing our life, our love for life and life lessons we stumble upon along the way.

Stop rationalizing! This is the best advice ever that I can come up with for now. 😉 Rationalization can be good and is actually essential when planning or looking for constructive solutions. Unfortunately, I tend to use rationalization in a different way: it helps me to make excuses! I think we all do.

Suppose you took a small piece of chocolate just because you wanted a snack. You’re still hungry, another little piece won’t hurt. And then another, who can blame you, you deserve it! See how easily it’s done and our minds are amazing at doing it! Some of you might be drooling by now (I apologize), others might not have difficulties resisting food. But we can all think of at least one thing we try to get or do by using rationalization when we know already it is non-constructive or even worse still, destructive.

Here’s our minimalism update for December 2014. We hope you had a great year! We certainly enjoyed posting articles and videos for you guys. We wish you a Merry Christmas and are sending our best wishes for 2015. See you next year!

Make sure to watch the whole video, we included a cute and funny clip from our youngest. 😉

As a Canadian living in a cold and snowy city, one of my slogans is “I can’t always run but I can shovel!” Actually I don’t mind shovelling snow. I put some Christmas music on and go out enjoy the fresh air and the workout.

Not too long ago was the first big storm of the season here in Ottawa. At this time of year, shovelling is not just a sport, it’s an intense planning activity! See, I have a small lawn and long driveway which means I need to carefully place the snow in a way that will allow me to stack the snow all winter long without it crumbling down and burying me. 😉

People don’t always use the word mother in a pleasant fashion. Here’s what everyone should say: Mothers are fantastic! This is the conclusion I drew after sitting a long time in the waiting room of my doctor’s office. Of course, I knew this universal truth before going to my appointment but as many other truths this one tends to be forgotten. And for some reason – probably pertaining to our human nature – mothers are the most forgetful of this, closely followed by their husbands.

Dating doesn’t end with “I do”, rather, spending time alone as a couple is an important part of staying connected. Watch this video to see how we like to keep dating a part of our marriage and how you can too! Go and date your mate! [tweet this]

Have you ever been around people who make you feel like you could do anything you set you mind to? Or people who, when with you, make you feel like you mean the world to them. Even when they have to tell you something you won’t like, you feel like they genuinely care. These are simply people builders!

Here’s a funny video of Cheryl and I giving you 5 ways to simplify Halloween for kids. Don’t be fooled, this video is silly and full of surprises – including some bloopers. It also delivers 5 serious practical tips that will help you have an amazing time with you kids this Halloween.

Here’s a video of Cheryl and I sharing our thoughts on how to make the minimalism movement last. As you all know by now, we were at SimpleREV 2014 and Joshua Becker gave a talk on this subject. He opened his inspirational speech by reading an article describing exactly how most of us would view our minimalism movement today, only to find out that it was written on April 8th 1991!

Looking at the late 90s and the beginning of the new millennium, it’s obvious that the movement did not last. Let’s make it last this time! Simple and intentional living is worth fighting for and promoting – share this video and subscribe!